None of Jay Feely’s teammates has stopped by his locker for investing advice during the past few weeks, but maybe they should. Before becoming and NFL player, the Jets kicker was a licensed financial adviser.

The financial crisis has been felt in all corners of our country, even in the locker rooms of professional sports. Now no one is going to have pity for millionaire athletes, but investing is extremely important for players who make a large amount of money over a short period of time and whose retirement age is closer to 35 than 65.

“The reality is you have such a short window to make the kind of money you do now that you need to be smart with it, you need to invest it well,” Feely said.

Because of his background, Feely manages his own money and more than a year ago went liquid with his investments. He anticipated a problem on Wall Street.

When the financial crisis began a few weeks ago, Feely said he was surprised at how little reaction there was within the Jets locker room. Most of the athletes interviewed said they trust their advisers and don’t spend much time worrying about what’s going on. They check quarterly statements or have occasional conversations with their adviser, but it’s not like players are turning off ESPN to check CNBC.

“During the first week when AIG was collapsing and Lehman Brothers and you had that general panic, there wasn’t that panic here,” Feely said. “You didn’t see it at all. You didn’t see the ramifications at all because the guys here are young, they have money and they don’t have that same scare factor.”

He has some simple advice for players worried about their portfolio.

“I think they should have at least a year’s worth of cash put aside, so they can pay a year’s worth of bills and if they have extra cash, this may be a good time to look at investing,” he said.

For players without Feely’s expertise, it comes down to having faith in the person they pay to manage their finances.

“If my investor came in here and I wanted to teach him how to play football, he’d have to take my word for it because he doesn’t know,” Jets linebacker David Bowens said. “That’s the flip side of the coin. I put a lot of trust in these people.”

Bowens then added, “It’s actually making my stomach hurt to talk about it.”

Like many people, Giants defensive tackle Barry Cofield has been on the phone with his financial adviser more than once in the past few weeks.

He has listened to her tell him to be patient. He has listened to her advice to just wait it out and wait for the stock market to rebound. Don’t watch the daily ups and downs, she says, echoing the counsel Americans in all professions are getting.

Still, he can’t help himself.

“I have faith in her but I’m still checking that Internet every day,” said Cofield, who is in the third year of a four-year, $2.1 million contract.

Traditionally, sports has been immune to economic problems. But this time there is a sense that rising ticket prices and a lack of extra cash may keep fans away and eventually the owners and the players will begin to feel the effects.

Marc Ganis, a consultant for Sports Corp Ltd. in Chicago, has worked with many teams across different sports and feels players may see fewer zeroes on their contract when they become free agents.

“The athletes up to now have been insulated from market conditions,” Ganis said. “That’s about to meaningfully change. I’m confident from my discussions with team owners. This last downturn – the uncertainty they feel, the lack of liquidity, the expectation that these economic spikes are now part of our landscape – has caused owners to say we’re not going to take the risks any longer.”

The first test of how this economic turmoil affects the sports world comes in a few weeks when baseball free agency begins. Teams are weighing what they want their payrolls to be in 2009 and the current climate is a factor. Top free agents such as CC Sabathia and Manny Ramirez probably will be unaffected but the middle-tier and lower-level free agents may get less than they would have a year ago.

“Lots of guys that are pitchers and win 12 games a year and would have made $12-14 million, it’s going to be hard to get those same numbers,” Ganis said.

Players are making adjustments already. Giants offensive tackle Kareem McKenzie said his investments are all long-term, but he has felt a crunch in his wallet already.

“In terms of ready cash, you can’t spend as much as you used to,” he said. “You have to plan more effectively for what may come because if you don’t have liquid cash on hand to do the things that are necessary you’re going to be in a bind. You’re going to have to take the money out of the market that you would have left in to grow and regain some of those losses.”

Some athletes see this downturn as the time to now invest more money. Knicks forward Malik Rose sounds giddy when talking about the prospects for his portfolio.

“When things are like this, it benefits guys who have liquid cash,” he said. “You keep buying. As it goes down, everybody wants to sell, but it’s cheaper. I’m setting my pieces up for the checkmate.”